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Copy 1 



VTtemovials. 

Go tbe fll>emon> of 

OFFERED BY SOCIETIES, ASSOCIATIONS AND 
CONFEDERATE CAMPS. 



PUBLISHED BY THE 



Cabtes Memorial Association 

©f Charleston, £. C. 



A TRIBUTE TO ITS FOUNDER, AND UP TO THE TIME OF HER 

DEATH ITS ONLY PRESIDENT. 
A TESTIMONIAL OF LOVE AND ESTEEM OF THE MEMBERS. 



EDITED BY j 

JAMES G. HOLMES. 



CHARLESTON, S. C. 

Walker, Evans & Cogswell Co., Printers, 

3 and 5 Broad and 117 East Bay Sts. 




MRS. MARY AMARINTHIA SNOWDEN, 



FOUNDEH AND FIRST, AND DORING HER LIFE ONLY, PRESIDENT 

EADIES MEMORIAL ASSOCIATION, 

CHARLESTON, S. C. 



2Ttemortq[s. 

Zo tbc fn>emon> of 
gtlrs. IPary ^mariutlxia ^notutlen 

OFFERED BY SOCIETIES, ASSOCIATIONS AND 
CONFEDERATE CAMPS. 



PUBLISHED BY THE 



Cabies memorial Association 

©f Charleston, S. C. 



A TRIBUTE TO ITS FOUNDER, AND UP TO THE TIME OF HER 

DEATH ITS ONLY PRESIDENT. 
A TESTIMONIAL OF LOVE AND ESTEEM OF THE MEMBERS, 

TO ONE 

" WJiose worth the spam of rolling centuries preserves hi 
memory wndeca/yvng . " 



EDITED BY 

JAMES G. HOLMES. 



CHARLESTON, S. C. 

WALKER* Evans & COGSWELL Co., PRINTERS, 

3 and 5 Broad and 117 East Bay Sts. 

1808. 



25427 

DEDICATED TO THE MEMORY OF 

vs. 3$tavt$ SMnavinthia j&nowcUn, 

AND 

pXrs. gsafoell $. j^nowtlcn, 

Sisters in the flesh, and true sisters in 

FAITH AND GOOD WORKS, 
BY THE EDITOR. 




MARY AMARINTHIA SNOWDEN 



She was not servant profitless; her name 

"Glows on the roll which duty keeps for fame— 
That golden roll with iron pen engraved, 
Dipped in the heart-blood of the noble dead, 
Weighed well with truthful balance, scrutinized 
By eyes that love no guile and grovel not." 

''The roll which duty keeps for fame" is enriched and 
ennobled by the name of Mary Amarinthia Snowden. Her 
co-workers of the Ladies Memorial Association, of Charleston, 
have deemed it fitting that they "should do their part to pre- 
serve at least the words of ''well done, thou good and faithful 
servant, ' ' that have been put into print and published after 
her death. In this spirit, and that Mrs. Snowden' s beauti- 
fully unselfish life, of constant endeavor for suffering- 
humanity, should serve as a guiding star to others, they 
resolved at their annual meeting June 6th, 1898, "That the 
Ladies Memorial Association, collect and publish in pamphlet 
form, all of the eulogies and resolutions on the death of Mrs. 
Mary Amarinthia Snowden, by which the many different 
Associations, Societies and Veteran Camps have testified 
through the newspapers, their tributes of love and admiration 
for her noble life work. 11 

''Also resolved. That Col. James Gr. Holmes be requested 
to take charge of and arrange all of the matter for publica- 
tion. 11 

Deeply sensible of the honor done him, by the last clause 
of the resolution, the editor of this pamphlet undertakes the 
''labor of love, 11 as one who for many years served with and 
under the gifted woman, the record of whose life's work is 
sought to be herein perpetuated. lie brings to the task his 



best efforts, and his loving, grateful appreciation of her 
character and good works, such as only a Confederate Vet- 
eran can. 

MARY AMARINTHIA SNOWDEN. 

' ' Death of a truly good and great Daughter of South Carolina. 

Tims The News and Courier announced the sad fact and 
among the funeral notices of February 24th, 1898, we read: 

' ' Died at her home in this city, on the afternoon of Fel >ruary 
23d, 1898, Mary Amarinthia Snowden, widow of Wm. 
Snowden, M. D." 

Invitations were also published by the Ladies Memorial 
Association -to attend the funeral of their late President, 
and also by Camp Sumter, No. 250, IT. C. V. The follow- 
ing sketch appeared in The News and Courier at the same 
time : 

There is a beatitude of the faithful dead, uttered from the 
Heaven to which they have passed, as truly as there is a 
beatitude of the saintly living, spoken upon that earth through 
which they strive. If the Son of Cod utters His blessing 
upon the one from the Holy Mount, the Spirit of God pro- 
claims the blessedness of the other from the very skies where 
it is made real. He says of them: "They rest from their 
labors, and their works do follow them.'" 

And this is the beautiful and impressive epitaph which has 
written itself in every thought with the first tidings that Mis. 
Mary Amarinthia Snowden has ceased from among the living. 
Rest from labor, and that labor always and ungrudgingly for 
others, could not conceivably conic to her but with the cessa- 
tion of life itself. For many years past, infirmity of health, 
advancing age and many trials conspired to make effort bard, 
and the necessity of respite seemingly imperative, but the 



strong spirit lias overcome them all, so that up to the very last 
of life the great interests and tasks to which she consecrated 
her life received unceasing attention, supervision and unweary- 
ing effort. 

It would require far more time, thought, research and a 
calmer spirit than can he summoned now, in the shock of this 
great hereavement, even to outline the wonderful and abiding- 
things which this noble lady has accomplished for her city, her 
State, and the cause of the Confederacy, which she held so 
sacred, right and dear. It might be fitly said of her: "Do you 
seek her monument ? Look around ! " The fund which built 
the Calhoun Monument owes its preservation through the war to 
the devotion and intrepidity of Mrs. Snowden, and her equally 
consecrated sister, Mrs. Isabella S. Snowden. The beautiful 
shaft that stands to the great Senator on Marion Square is 
almost, if not quite, equally a monument to these heroic and 
self-sacrificing sisters. The lot in Magnolia Cemetery, where 
sleep a thousand Confederate soldiers, was secured largely 
through their efforts, and the head stones at each soldier's 
grave. The Confederate dead brought thither from Gettys- 
burg would still be sleeping there but for Mrs. Snowden'' s 
unresting, unceasing and patriotic piety. The Ladies Memo- 
rial Association, which decorates the graves yearly, was largely 
founded by her. 

So many and great have been the works wrought by this 
single life, consecrated to usefulness, that each seems greatest 
until another is contemplated. But the "Home for Mothers, 
Widows and Daughters of Confederate Soldiers, 11 is the 
achievement which cost most supreme exertion and has exerted 
the widest influence. It has existed and flourished for thirty 
years, and has supported and educated more than a thousand 
young Confederate orphans. The first institution of the kind 
in the South, it bids fair to outlive all others. It is fixed 
upon a sound financial basis, and is seated in public confidence 
and regard. 

That the place of Mrs. Snowden can be filled in the enter- 



6 

prises of benevolence which she started and carried forward 
no one dares to hope. Yet she laid down her work in them 
at a time when, if ever, they conld promise perpetuity and 
prosperity. Calmly contemplating and fully providing for 
"the last of earth," she fell asleep yesterday and passed to 
where her "works will follow her." 

Mary Amarinthia Snowden (nee Yates) was born at Charles- 
ton, S. C, September 10th, 1819. Her parents were of 
English and German extraction, and had settled in South 
Carolina before the Eevolution of 1776. Her father died 
when she was 18 months old. and her bringing up devolved 
upon the mother, from whom she inherited that stern inflexi- 
bility of purpose, common sense and public spirit which has 
enabled her to inaugurate and carry on successfully so many 
good works in her native State. 

At that time the schools of Charleston for female education 
were not of the best, and her mother, being in affluent circum- 
stances, moved with the family to Philadelphia, Pa., for the 
education of the children. There they remained five years, 
when they returned to South Carolina. Two of her brothers 
were sent to Scotland to complete their education, and she 
went to the Seminary of Dr. Elias Marks, at Barhamville, 
near Columbia, S. C, a school of high grade, which, for sixty 
years, threw open its doors to the daughters of the best fami- 
lies of the State. At school, although not the first in her 
class, she conducted herself creditably, and was beloved alike 
by teachers and scholars for her keen intelligence, perfect 
sincerity, playful wit and charming esprit, characteristics 
which did not fade, but merely mellowed by age and adversity 
She made friends from all parts of the State, not the evanes- 
cent friendships which generally mark school girl life, but 
those cemented by time, mutual hopes, fears and sufferings. 
Her maidenhood was spent most enjo_val.lv; now at the balls 
and festivities of winter life in the city, and then on some old 
plantation among those planters who, in lettered ease, passed 
their days ami years, and furnished a noble type of American 



manhood which has perished with its corner stone, slavery. 
At Columbia she met the leaders of public opinion, men who 
eventually dared all, and lost all, save honor, for conscience 
sake. Among her most intimate acquaintances were Senators 
Calhoun and Elmore, Governor David Johnson, Judges Earle 
and Aldrich, and the Hon. W. L. Yancey, the prime mover 
of secession. Perhaps the first institution with which she was 
connected was the ''School Ship Lodebar," of Charleston, 
which owed its origin to the exertions of her brother, the Eev. 
Wm, B. Yates. It is believed to have been the first of its kind 
in the world. Here the homeless vagabonds, which are to be 
found in every city, were trained in all the duties of the sailor's 
life, and at the same time received a good English education 
on board ship. 

"The good men do" is accretive; encouraged by the suc- 
cess attained by the Charleston school ship, such institutions 
have sprung up in nearly every large port in the United States 
and Great Britain. In 1857 Miss Yates was married to 
William Snowden, M. D., of a highly respectable family of 
South Carolina planters. Of this union there have been two 
children. 

Soon after the death of Mr. Calhoun, the great statesman 
of the South, and [the especial pride of South Carolina, an 
association was organized for the purpose of erecting a suita- 
ble monument to his memory, "tanto nomini nullum par 
elogium," but this monument is intended to inform posterity 
of the love and admiration his people bore him. His works, 
those ''sacred oracles of political wisdom," constitute his 
most enduring monument. In this work Mrs. Snowden took 
a prominent part; during the night of the burning of Colum- 
bia the assets of the Association were worn on the persons of 
Mrs. Snowden and an equally devoted sister. Governor Porter 
and Col. Gaillard declared in the public prints that through 
the efforts of Mrs. Snowden the Calhoun Monument Associa- 
tion had proportionately preserved more of its funds during 
that devastating war than any corporation of the South. 



8 

In 1861 there came the War of Secession, and here Mrs. 
Snowden's character shines in its brightest light. Numerous 
hospitals along its beleaguered coast owed their existence to 
her endeavors; provisions and clothing were sent weekly to 
the armies of Virginia and the West; she undertook an expe- 
dition to Warrenton, Va. , ten miles from the battlefield of 
Manassas, at the time of the second battle, over frightful roads 
(the railways being destroyed by the enemy) and almost impas- 
sable rivers; though advised of the danger, carrying with her 
clothing and comforts for the wounded, and personally attend- 
ing the dying in the hospitals, at private houses, and on an 
open field on Academy Hill. Among these last were one 
hundred and eighty South Carolinians. 

Under her supervision, and with the aid of other patriotic- 
ladies, a bazaar was opened in Columbia, S. C, which con- 
tributed $350,000 to the Confederacy. Special recognition 
of her services was made by the Congress of the Confederate 
States by allowing her to import, as best she could, through 
the blockade, wines and liquors of all sorts for the Southern 
hospitals. She was present, with her family, in Columbia, 
S. C, during the sack and burning of that city by the army 
of General Sherman. Many hundred Confederate prisoners, 
without means, and generally too weak for transportation, 
were under her care for sonic months. With the contributions 
of the citizens, and what she could extort from the Federal 
forces, these men were clothed and fed until they could return 
to their homes. The halls of the University of the State were 
put at her disposal, and here, with a few friends and her 
former slaves (the majority of whom had refused to follow in 
the wake of the victorious army), did she exhibit that execu- 
tive ability and faculty for organization which gave her rank 
among the first women of the State. 

With shattered hopes (for what Southener ever doubted 
ultimate success? so firmly were they convinced of the jus- 
tice of their cause), the loss of a noble and devoted husband, 
property depreciated to one-tenth its real value, and a family 



9 

dependent on her for support, did she return to Charleston, 
in 1S65. 

But "the cause, 11 though lost, was none the less dear. At 
Magnolia, the City of the Dead, lie the remains of over eight 
hundred volunteers who had fallen in defence of the city. 
With several friends, she, in 1866, formed a Memorial Asso- 
ciation ; from the funds raised by this body have been erected 
eight hundred marble head stones, with their name, rank and 
State engraved thereon, and a statue in bronze of a Confed- 
erate soldier surmounts the granite column which stands in 
the centre of the enclosure. 

But in honoring the dead, the living were not to be forgot- 
ten; and in 1867 she bent her energies towards preparing a 
Home for the Mothers, Widows and Daughters of Confederate 
soldiers. This Institution, the only one of its kind in the 
Southern States, was founded in 1867. One dollar from a 
widow in Baltimore was the first donation. Widows and 
mothers of Confederate soldiers are here allowed a home, and 
daughters are educated for a merely nominal sum, or as their 
means allow. Hundreds of the impoverished daughters of 
South Carolina have been educated at this Institution, and 
many a widow and mother lias found there a "home and a 
resting place." Seventy thousand dollars have been raised 
for its support since its inception. When the design was 
barely digested, and its novelty had made the public doubtful 
of its ultimate success, Mrs. Snowden never hesitated a 
moment; but, with her sister, mortgaged their own residence 
for payment of the first year's rent on the building. But 
friends came forward, subscriptions to the good work increased, 
and the rent was paid. The building is now owned by the 
Association, and the nucleus of a handsome endowment fund 
is in the bank'-. 

Not only did Mrs. Snowden interest herself in most 
schemes for the public good, but she was highly honored at 
home for those little unnumbered acts of kindness which make 
life worth living to the thoughtful. That she bad not the 



10 

reputation of a Florence Nightingale, or Burdett Coutts, is 
granted. There are claimed for her none of those great acts 
of Christian philanthropy which only riches make possible, but 

in her native State she was known far and wide as one who 
had worked since her youth for the benefit of others, with no 
reward save the consciousness of duty well performed, and 
what Milton calls "the dear affection of the public good." 

Editorially The News and Courier wrote : 

"I cannot forbear to allude to the venerable and beloved 
( arolina matron, who, amid all the perils of war and the 
storms of battle, carried, concealed on her person, the sacred 
fund which was dedicated to the erection of this monument." 

In concluding his masterly address at the dedication of the 
Calhoun Monument, in this city, in April, 1887, the Hon. 
L. Q. C. Lamar paid this high tribute to the splendid woman 
who passed away yesterday to her everlasting reward. The 
monument on Marion Square is a monument not only to the 
great statesman, whose memory it perpetuates, but it is a 
monument as well to the builders, and to none more surely 
and truly than Mrs. M. A. Snowden, who now rests from her 
labors. 

We shall never see her like again. Her life was spent in 
the service of others. There was not a day which did not 
record some kindly act, some blessed counsel, some generous 
deed, some inspiring sentiment. Whether ministering in the 
wayside hospital, during the war, or caring for the children 
of the Southern soldiers, or striving to perpetuate the memo- 
ries of the glorious past, or hiving fresh flowers on the 
graves of the deathless dead, her life was a blessing, her 
example an inspiration. 

The city where she had always lived, the State winch she 
loved with unspeakable devotion, and the people whom she 
served to almost the last moment of her earthly existence, may 
well mourn her loss. She will nor return, nor would we call 



11 

her back from the peaceful sleep which the Almighty gives to 
His beloved. Words are weak, and grief is unavailing, and 
tears are idle — only the eye of faith and love can appreciate 
the height and depth, the glory unapproachable and everlast- 
ing of the larger life upon which the departed has entered. 

Editorial notices also appeared in The Greenville News, 
The Hampton County Guardian, and other papers of the 
State, all couched in the spirit of admiration for her proven 
worth. 

The News and Courier of February 25th contained this 
account of the funeral : 

The funeral services over the remains of the late Mrs. M. A. 
Snowden were conducted at the French Huguenot Church 
yesterday afternoon, at -1.30 o'clock. The seating capacity 
of the church was totally inadequate to accommodate the 
throng of people who gathered to pay the last token of respect 
to the memory of a woman who was known throughout the city 
for her good deeds. Many persons were forced to stand in the 
aisles throughout the services, and there were still others who 
remained outside of the church. 

The cofKu was borne into the church and subsequently to 
the grave by the following pallbearers : Daniel Ravenel, 
A, L. Yates, St. Julien Yates, Julius DuBose, James G. 
Snowden, Dr. W. P. Porcher, H. P. Blackmail, W. II. 
Porter and Minott Gaillard. 

The honorary pallbearers were: Judge W. II. Brawley, 
Dr. R. L. Brodie, Dr. F. L. Parker, Mr. Charles Snowden, 
Col. James G. Holmes, Mr. A. Markley Lee, Mr. Clarence 
Cunningham, Mr. W. II. Porter, and Mr. S. G. Pirn-knew 
The honorary pallbearers preceded the casket into the church, 
and following it were a number of the United Confederate 
Veterans, led by General C. 1. Walker. The casket was 
covered with handsome floral tributes. As the procession 
advanced up the aisle the services for the dead in the Hugue- 
not Church were opened with the chanting of Psalms, The 



12 

services were conducted by Dr. Brackett, of the Second 
Presbyterian Church; Dr. Vedder, of the Huguenot Church ; 

and Dr. Cuthbert, of the First Baptist Church, in a most 
impressive manner. The hymns sung were: "Art Thou 
Weary; Art Thou Languid," and ''Jesus, Lover of My 
Soul." In the former the congregation joined, while the 
latter was rendered as a recessional. 

Before reading that part of the service assigned to him, Dr. 
Vedder said that it was not the custom of the church to speak 
of its dead until the Sunday following a funeral, but he felt 
sure that in that instance he was authorized in violating the 
rule. Continuing, he said: 

In the last discourse preached from this pulpit a contrast 
was drawn between the manner in which some different per- 
sons meet the last enemy. Some claim, in the language of 
the prophet, to have made a covenant with death, and to be 
at agreement with all that shall follow it; the covenant with 
death as to what they shall think of it, usually determining 
not to think of it all, or if compelled to do so, not to fear it. 
But is fearlessness a pillar upon which they can rest their 
hopes ? Is indifference or defiance a right greeting for this 
universal visitant ? 

Shall a man pass his life here hardly and laboriously, and have 
nothing to show for it in the end but this ? Shall a man have 
every element and condition of happiness here, and no surety 
of happiness hereafter ? But even in any close of life there 
must be something of introspection. Some inventory of that 
business of life now about to be closed up forever; some 
search into the storehouse of memories which wait to be min- 
istries of regret or remorse. Some couches there are where 
the reaper comes to a smiling harvest, where the wing of the 
death angel fans a placid brow, and its hand touches a tranquil 
pulse ; when death's summons is the welcome enfranchisement 
of a fettered spirit; some there have been who fully weighed 
all the felicities of life, or its purposes broken off, and yet 
have said with the dying Senator in the Senate House: "This 
is the last of earth ; I am content. ' ' 



13 

The pastor did not anticipate that such a close of life would 
be practically exemplified in his own communion before another 
Sabbath dawned; yet thus it has been. The life which has 
now and here reached its bound had long foreseen and pro- 
vided for this hour. In every detail the scene of which we 
now make part had passed before its vision. The frail house 
of life which the Great Builder has now taken down was set 
fully in order. Calmly, peacefully, trustfully, it was ex- 
changed for the house not made with hands, eternal in the 
heavens. 

It was a beautiful parable of old which represented man as 
possessed of three friends: one was greatly prized; the second 
tenderly loved ; and the third more lightly esteemed. But 
when man's last hour had come, the first friend, who had 
been held so highly, forsook him with his last breath; the 
second friend, so dearly loved, accompanied him to the portals 
of the' tomb, but could go no further; but the third friend 
was with him as the support of his last hours, went with him 
into the tomb, and into all the life beyond to make it glad. 
It need hardly be said that the first friend was wealth, which 
a man must leave behind; the second friend, family, which 
can only go with him to the tomb; and the third friend is 
faith, with its motive of love to God, and ministry of love to 
man. He, in whom this faith is the inspiration and energy 
of life, can say: 

For this poor form, 
Which vests me in, I give it to destruction 
As gladly as the storm -beat traveller 
Who, having reached his destined place of shelter, 
Drops at the door his mantle's cumbrous weight. , 

Just prior to the opening of the services, the Rev. Dr. A. 
Toomer Porter, of the Church of the Holy ( onmiunion, passed 
up the aisle and laid a, beautiful "hunch of carnations upon the 
casket. The church was so much crowded that Dr. Yedder 
invited Dr. Porter within the railing about the pulpit. At 



14 

the conclusion of the services the Benediction was pronounced 
by Dr. Porter, most impressively. 

The interment was made in the family lot in Magnolia 
Cemetery. While the grave was being filled in the young 
ladies of the Confederate Home School, who had attended the 
services at the church in a body, sang several hymns, among 
them being "Just As I Am," "Safe in the Arms of Jesus," 
and "Asleep in Jesus, Blessed Sleep." 

March the 1st, the Ladies' Memorial Association of ( Jharles- 
ton, S. C , whose founder, and at the time of her death, 
only President, Mrs. Suowden had been, passed the follow- 
ing resolutions: 

Whereas, it is a very sad duty which now calls us together, 
for with tender and reverent hands we would lay a chaplet of 
loving thoughts and memories upon the grave of our late 
President, Mrs. Mary Amarinthia Snowden, a noble Chris- 
tian woman, whose life was dedicated to kind deeds and grand 
enterprises for the benefit of friends, city, Confederate!:!, living 
and dead, without one thought of herself. From mountains 
to seaboard her loss has caused deep sorrow; long will her 
memory be revered and cherished. This Memorial Associa- 
tion, the first 'one organized in the South, owes much of its 
founding and prosperity to her untiring efforts, large sympa- 
thies and wise management, which we, her associates, have 
ever keenly appreciated. Therefore, be it 

Resolved, That this Memorial Association has met with an 
irreparable loss in the death of Mrs. M. Amarinthia Snowden, 
for long years its President, faithful officer, and the Board of 
Directors an earnest, sincere friend. 

2. That we continue as a sacred trust the work she loved 
so well, in caring for the graves of our Confederate dead, and 
raising monuments to their memories. 

3. That on Memorial Day we will all wear, with our badges, 
a black ribbon, in token of respect for her memory 



15 

4. That we offer our sincere sympathy to the family of our 
late President, Mrs. M. A. Snowden, in their deep affliction, 
mourning with them for her who has received her reward: 
' ' Well done, good and faithful servant, enter thou into the 
joy of thy Lord. 11 Also that a copy of these resolutions be 
sent to the family, and published in The News and Courier. 

The following was then offered and adopted : 

Resolved, That in token of our regret for the loss of our 
beloved President, Mrs. Mary Amarinthia Snowden, this 
Association proceed immediately to take action for the erec- 
tion of a permanent memorial to her character and work. 

Resolved, That a committee of three be appointed to sug- 
gest and report to this Association the form and place for this 
memorial, and the method by which the means for it may be 
best secured. 

Resolved, That the collection taken up on next Memorial 
Day be exclusively devoted to this purpose. 

On the same day the "Board of Control 11 of the "Home 
for^Mothers, Widows and Daughters of Confederate Soldiers 
and Sailors ' ' passed these resolutions : 

Whereas, It has pleased God to remove from the scene of 
her earthly service our beloved President, to whom, under 
His providence, the Confederate Home of Charleston owes its 
origin, continuance, usefulness and prosperity; and 

Whereas, This bereavement, so often feared, comes at last 
so suddenly as to forbid calm thought and speech; and 

Whereas, This /first meeting of the Board of Control alter 
her departure may not pass without some expression of our 
grief, however broken and feeble. Therefore, be it 

Resolved, That the demise of Mrs. Mary Amarinthia 
Snowden, over which the city and State, which she so devot- 
edly loved, mourn as a public loss, comes to us. her associates, 



16 

with the overwhelming force of a personal and irreparable 
calamity. 

Resolved, That we bow submissively to the Divine hand 
from which this dispensation comes, acknowledging the mercy 
of the same gracious Hand in giving us so long the consecrated 
life of our sister, and the inspiration of her zeal, energy and 
tirelessness in all good works. 

Resolved, Tliat we accept as a sacred trust the work in 
which she was so long our leader, and which she has left to 
us in a state of such efficiency and stability that any success 
which shall attend our administration of its affairs will only 
be a tribute to her wisdom, ardor and efficiency. 

Resolved, That we will treasure her . memory with the 
tenderest devotion as one whom it was a privilege to know, 
and with whom it will always be our pride and honor to have 
been associated in the service of Confederate sympathy and 
helpfulness. 

Resolved, That our ilearest and truest sympathies be extended 
to the children of our President, who only echo the voice of 
a community and Commonwealth when they "rise up and 
call their mother blessed. ' ' 

J. A. ADGER, Chairman. 

A. SIMPSON. 

MRS. C. S. VEDDER. 

Editorially The Southern Christian Advocate, March 3rd, 

is: is, wrote: 

' ' Mrs. Snowden was a remarkable woman, and she rendered 
very great service. A Southerner of Southerners, a Confed- 
erate of Confederates, she devoted her life to distinctively 
Southern and Confederate ideas. The monument to Calhoun, 
the Ladies' Memorial Association, the Confederate section in 
Magnolia Cemetery, with its hero-dead, the Confederate Home 
and School, all speak eloquently of the thoughts that ruled a 
brave, loving and unchangeable heart. This consecration of 



17 



purpose made possible the large results of her endeavor. 
Such character and life as Mrs. Snowden's should be held 
before the generations as an inspiration and an example. 
* * * * " x " Mrs Snowden was the incarnation of 
Southern womanhood in the war between the States and after. " 

The most important and impressive services in memory of 
the honored and lamented dead were the Memorial Services 
held at the Huguenot Church, the church of her tenderest 
love and devotion. Sunday, March 6th, 1898. The News 
and Courier of the next day contains this account of the 
solemn and heartfelt services: 

The Rev. Charles S. Vedder, D. D., pastor of the Hugue- 
not Church, preached a memorial discourse at the morning 
service, on the life and work of the late Mrs. M. A. Snow- 
den. ■ Dr. Vedder was associated with much of Mrs. Snow- 
den's work for more than thirty years, and was her pastor 
during all that time. . He was acquainted , therefore, with 
her work, and he spoke feelingly of her character and her 
career. 

Dr. Vedder' s text was from John 11, 3: 

' ' Then took Mary a pound of ointment, of spikenard , very 
precious, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped His feet 
with her hair, and the house was filled with the odor of the 
ointment. ' ' 

These words, said the minister, call us to look upon a scene 
ineffably pathetic and memorable — a scene the circumstances 
of which are so true to nature that they could not have been 
invented; a scene in which gratitude manifests itself in abso- 
lute consonance with the differences of human temperament 
and estimate. The place is Bethany, and the home of Simon, 
the leper. Seated at his hospitable board, a guest only less 
welcome than the Lord Jesus Himself, is Lazarus, whom lie 
had raised from the dead. Thought is left to conceive, for 
2 



18 

words cannot portray, the emotion which thrills his heart as he 
looks upon his' Deliverer, and hears again the voice which 
woke him from the sleep of the tomb. Simo™, recalled from 
the desert places to which he had been banished as a leper, 
and restored to home and family, gave natural token of his 
gratitude by welcoming his Healer to a feast in that home and 
with that family. But still another was present, and her 
grateful love found far other expression. With ointment of 
spikenard, very precious, she anointed the feet of Jesus, and 
wiped His feet with the hair of her head. 

Two of these forms of gratitude passed without cavil. That 
the restored, the resurrected brother, should look upon his 
Lord with a depth of feeling that forbade utterance, that 
Simon should signalize his ransom from worse than death by 
honor shown to his Deliverer; these things could be under- 
stood and approved. But that the gentle sister should bring 
an offering seemingly far, far beyond her means, or which 
implied a lavish self-denial and sacrifice, was held to be by 
some of the disciples a needless and unjustifiable waste. 

Their censure received instant and earnest reproof ,.. That 
this reproof may come echoing down through the ages the 
beautiful incident of which it forms part— not otherwise 
specially significant — is embalmed in our Gospels. With 
that care which our Scripture has to make duties and privileges 
about which debate may circle, so certain by illustration that 
all intelligent debate may be silenced, the ottering of Mary 
has emphatic approval — its human criticism is of record, in 
order to be condemned. 

Men have been, and some men are now, ready to sit in 
judgment upon all ttiose forms of service to Christ which 
express themselves in what are called extremes. If this 
judgment be warranted, then the martyrdom of Stephen, of 
the early apostles and disci] ties; of all the victims of heathen 
persecution ; of the scaffolds and stake welcomed to maintain 
Christ's crown and covenant; the persecution unto death or 
banishment of those whom this Church commemorates; the 



19 

glad immolation of missionaries upon the altar of fatal climates 
to preach Jesus! all these tilings and things like them are a 
needless, suicidal waste. And because even such a judgment 
is possible, and that from some of His own disciples, our Lord 
has set the seal of His own encomium upon the offering of 
Mary of Bethany What He said of it we learn more fully 
from the Gosjwls, which record a like incident. Shall we 
recall His commendation: He said: '•Why trouble ye her? 
She hath wrought a good work upon Me. 11 

What was there in this act of affection and honor which 
entitled it to the exalted praise, uttered by Divine lips, that 
it was a ''good work '? " Does not the encomium seem dis- 
proportioned to the act ? Was it more than any woman of 
Bethany would have gladly done to Him who was honored* 
and beloved ? The Saviour Himself answers the question. 

It was a ''good work 1 '' in respect to the time in which it 
was wrought. As if by the prophetic instinct of true devo- 
tion, or, perhaps, taught better than His disciples by the words 
of His own lips, many knew that the Lord was to be but a 
little time with them. A few days more — the coming event 
had cast its sombre shadow before, and in it she seemed to 
walk — a few days more, and she, with the other women, 
should stand by His cross, beholding an agony which they 
should be powerless to assuage. ( )ther opportunity to honor 
Him might never be afforded. If, as He said. He should 
rise again, would the conqueror of death and the grave be the 
same as now, accessible, sympathetic, losing? Would He 
still be the friend of the lowly, sitting at meat in their homes, 
and identified with their sorrows ? 

"She has come aforehand to anoint My body for the bury- 
ing," said Jesus, in commending what His disciples, or some 
of them, 'condemned. It might, perhaps, be thought that 
these words were prompted by profound and delicate consid- 
eration, for the woman, shrinking under the harsh censures of 
His disciples, rather than as expressing a valid reason for the 
act which they sanctioned. Though this view might do no 



20 

dishonor to Him who spake the words, it cannot be justified. 

His words more than imply that she had presentiment of the 

significance and timeliness of the offering she bore. The 

fulness of its meaning has not been explained to us. save that 

it was an "anointing beforehand." It was the custom of all 

nations to adorn the sacrifices for the altar. It was meet, 

then, that He who was the supreme victim of all sacrifice — 

the substance of all the shadows of vicarious suffering — 

should be anointed for His one perfect oblation. Those by 

whom He should be slain would crown Him with thorns, and 

not garlands; cover Him with reproach, not reverential glory; 

and it was seemly that dear and devoted hands should anticipate 

the beautiful offices which affection should be denied at His cross. 
« 

Our Lord, moreover, was the Priest, as well as the Propi- 
tiation, and the simple act of the woman did but symbolize 
that anointing of God which He had received, and by which 
Fie was solemnly set apart to offer the sacrifice of His own 
body for sin. 

It was a ''good work, 11 in that she had done "what she 
could.' 1 

Being a woman, it was not permitted her to share the 
immediate trials and privations of her Lord. She could not 
be with Him always, like the twelve, showing devotion in 
nameless ways. The words of the Master warrant the belief 
that the ointment was her all. Whether she had expended all 
to purchase it, or whether it had been treasured as the memento 
of hetter days, we are not told. One or other of these sup- 
positions is probably true. 

Simon, the leper, might have presented the same offering, 
without challenging comment. Possessed of such wealth as 
enabled him to be hospitable, he could have given something 
more costly without sacrificing a single luxury or comfoi t. It 
might well have been nothing compared with what he could 
do. With Mary it was "what she could. 11 Like the two 
mites of the widow, she sought with personal and extreme 
sacrifice to embalm the body so dear to her for burial. The 



21 

Saviour accepted the offering, and promised it undying 
remembrance. 

Included in His words also is the enunciation of the prin- 
ciples that holy impulse build eth better than it knows. The 
murmuring of the disciples at what seemed a needless waste 
was natural. They thought their censure charitable and 
humane. Judas, who seems to be foremost in complaint, 
uttered this thought, and the rest tacitly consented. What 
must have been their surprise at the rebuke ? "They meas- 
ured moral quality by practical utility. 1 ' Jesus taught them 
that the true estimate of an act is the motive which prompts 
the spirit by which it is pervaded. 

The mind is many-voiced — the heart has but a single speech. 
Cold reason often shuts close the door of mercy, which affec- 
tionate impulse would throw wide open. When a compas- 
sionate spirit says "give," a calculating reason hesitates, lest 
it should give amiss. There may be nothing blame-worthy 
in the delay. There is a place for carefulness in giving. 
That remarkable book, dating back to the second centurv, 
which was found and translated a few years ago, and aroused 
a world-wide interest, "The Teaching of the Twelve Apos- 
tles,' 1 has this forcible saying: "Let thine alms sweat in 
thine hand until thou knowest to whom thou shouldst give." 
Indiscriminate and promiscuous benevolence is not building 
well, but ill — it is rather not building at all, but breaking up 
the foundations of self-respect and self-support. But the 
lesson of our subject is that there is a time and place when 
and where we may not stop for hard and curious questioning 
to stem the tide of impulsive feeling, when it would flow forth 
in a flood which reason would call waste. Sensibility to 
others" woes has been truly called 

"A sudden sense of right, 
An hasty conscience, reason's blushing morn, 
Instinctive kindness, ere reflections born; 
Prompt sense of equity to thee belongs 
The swift redress of unexamined wrongs, 
Eager to serve the cause perhaps untried, 
But alwavs swift to choose the suffering side." 



22 



There are times, and our subject warns us to give them 
heed, when if at no time else, "reason is progressive, but 
instinct is complete; swift instinct leaps, slow reason feebly 
climbs.'* 

You need not be told, brethren, to what end these lessons 
of the text have been gathered. Another Mary has passed 
from us, who poured the ointment of an absolutely devoted 
life upon her Saviour's feet — the "spikenard very precious" 
of an unresting ministry to others in His name, and for His 
sake. Public testimony of every kind has said of these now 
folded hands that they did "what they could. 1 ' But the 
( llmrch which she loved so well, and served so long, cannot 
let these suffice. It claims the right and exercises the privi- 
lege of laying its own tribute upon the altar of her memory. 
If the act of the Mary of the Scripture record was to be 
embalmed in everlasting remembrance, the life which has 
been lived among our own, and which that suggests, should 
not pass without grateful recognition by the generation which 
it served. 

Turn back to that page of time which tells of our immediate 
history nearly a third of a century gone. Look upon that 
Southern land which had been a garden of beauty, laid waste 
by sword and tire; upon a people cultured, refined, chivalric, 
brave, sensitive to honor and enamored of right, crushed now 
in the utter disappointment of confident hopes, shorn of all 
civil immunities, reduced to abject poverty, and subjected to 
a rule ignorant, insolent, rapacious and vulgarly oppressive 
beyond words. See lawlessness intrenching itself in the form 
of law; brigandage organizing itself in the Legislature of once 
proud and honored commonwealths; the ermine of the judi- 
cial bench, spotless through all its history before, smirched, 
stained, befouled with every form of defilement. Former 
enmity stood aghast at the sight, and wrote its verdict of the 
change by calling the Palmetto the ' ' Prostrate State. ' ' Those 
fearful days have now become a shuddering memory, and are 
only recalled that we may recall the heroic life which met 



23 

them and wrung from their dread hours sublime achieve- 
ments. 

At the very cure of the ruin of that time was the hopeless 
future. Mothers, widowed by the war, were often without 
a roof under which they could hide their tears from those 
who mocked them; sisters, made brotherless, and helpless, 
looked out upon life with unrelieved despair; daughters, 
tenderly reared, wrought iu the fields to eke out scant subsis- 
tence for the body, whilst their minds could not dream of 
cultivation. The incredible prospect loomed forth of a people 
whose reverence for their women had passed into an axiom, 
and whose women had been generally worthy of their proud 
regard — of such a people confronting the coming years with 
a generation of their daughters, outside of the cities, without 
the simplest and most rudimentary elements of the knowledge 
which would give smice to their lives and fitness for its 
inevitable responsibilities. 

It was a condition which appalled contemplation, and yet 
which seemed inescapable. Men struggled vainly even to 
conceive, much more to achieve, the means of relief. Minis 
ters at God's altar, as they confessed openly and unashamed — 
for the problem appeared to defy solution — ministers of the 
Gospel, who sought to move first in a work which so pecu- 
liarly belonged to their office, despairingly acknowdedged 
defeat. 

And then — it is the simple truth — a gentle woman, fragile 
in body, but fearless in soul — wearing the weeds of her own 
widowhood; one who had before organized agencies of supply 
for the soldiers in the field, whilst the strife lasted, and minis- 
tered untiringly in the hospitals for the sick and wounded; 
one whose belief in the sacredness of the cause which had 
failed, made its loss an incurable woe — such a woman refused 
to be daunted by the failures and doubts and discouragements 
of others. 

Before the thought bad taken form anywhere else in the 
devastated land, this Mary, with her Martha— sister — save 



24 



that this Martha, unlike the Martha of the Scripture record, 
was as eager to sit at the feet of her Master to learn, as she 
gladly cumbered herself with much serving for Him — con- 
ceived and carried into immediate effect the plan of a shelter 
for other widowed hearts. 

The story is as familiar, perhaps, as household words. But 
can we ever weary of the recital ? The present speaker was 
honored in being a witness and humble participant in the first 
steps — though only as the pastor, who was asked to be present 
with counsel and sympathy, and not with any hope or claim of 
other association with its actual work, though he has had glad 
share in its after operation. "With one dollar, and that the 
gift of a widow. in a distant city, to pay the rental, a spacious 
building was secured, at an annual cost of $1,700, and these 
two sisters mortgaged their own and only home to secure the 
rental. "With undelaying promptness the place was prepared 
and its doors thrown open, and twenty-five claimants of Con- 
federate sympathy were received. An organization was 
instantly formed, and the present Constitution, in all its essen- 
tial features, was adopted. Of the thirteen ladies who 
formed the first Board of Control, only two now survive. 

None who were present will ever forget the scene when the 
Home was formally inaugurated. A hush, as in the very 
presence of the dead, rested upon the vast assemblage which 
thronged the Home parlors. Ministers of many denomina- 
tions- — two of the most eminent of which have now passed 
away, the beloved Christopher Gadsden and Edwin T. Wink- 
ler — took part in the impressive service, and besought that 
Divine favor upon the holy enterprise which has attended it 
ever since. 

A school was established at first, but only for the children 
of the inmates, and twenty-five pupils were taught by the glad 
and gratuitous service of young ladies of the city. Within 
six months the Home sheltered seventy permanent inmates; 
and the school had more than fifty pupils. Then thirteen 
young ladies were received and boarded , under the care of an 



25 

experienced matron, and enabled to attend some of the best 
schools in the city. In the year following-, the number of 
young ladies was increased to twenty-five, and of the inmates 
to one hundred and two. At the third anniversary both of 
these numbers had increased, and the plan was inaugurated, 
which has ever since been carried out — of not only furnishing 
a home for the pupils, but of providing the means and oppor- 
tunity of education, under competent teachers, within the 
institution itself. From that day to this there has been an 
average of fifty-two pupils annually in the Home and its 
school — the number in one year alone reaching .as high as 
eighty-seven. And these young ladies have borne some of 
the best names in Carolina's history. Not only does the 
Home own the building which it first rented, but has added to 
it as much more, and has invested scholarships in many 
endeared names. And it has sheltered for years very many 
widows and sisters of Confederate soldiers. 

And it is no exaggeration to say that not a single one of 
these great results would have been possible or probable, but 
for the noble sisters, who, under God, gave not a portion, 
but the whole of their lives to it — one falling by the way, a 
sacrifice to her work, and the other but now resting from her 
labors. To her full surrender of time, thought and strength 
to its interests ; to her indomitable, unslumbering purpose, 
zeal, patience, persistence and faith; to her example, inspir- 
ing others who have wrought with her, grandly and effect- 
ively; to her determination to do "what she could," we owe 
an enterprise of pious, patriotic and practical moment, whose 
influence eternity alone can measure. 

Far, far more than once or thrice has it been said, and that 
not by cavillers, but even by comrades in like work. "Why 
was the waste of the ointment of this precious life made, 
which might have been sold for the price of less laborious days 
and service in other spheres?" But none will ask this 
question now. And He who knows that all this was done for 
Him, the impulse of an affection which took no counsel of 



26 

cold reason in fearing failure; He who said: " Inasmuch as 
ye have done it unto the least of these, ye have done it unto 
Me. 11 He will say: "She hath done what she could; she 
hath wrought a good work upon Me." 

And she of whom this record is true, had been worthy of 
imperishable remembrance among her own people, even if it 
could never have been written. The custodian of a great 
treasure of securities, representing a large sum of money, she 
bore them safely throughout all her journeying, ministerings 
and ceaseless labors, through four years of war— bore them, 
she or her noble sister, alternately, next their person, in 
constant peril of robbery, and even of loss of life, and deliv- 
ered them up at the end undiminished in number and value — 
the only wealth that fully survived the conflict — and then 
rested not until they had fulfilled their purpose. The beau- 
tiful shaft which stands in our city to Carolina's illustrious 
statesman, is no less a memorial to her whose fearless faith- 
fulness made it possible. 

Nor did her zeal alone include in its scope the widowed and 
orphaned survivors of the war. With kindred souls, she 
cared for the dust of those who had fallen in it — the calm 
sleepers who lie in our Magnolia, sentineled by the almost 
breathing statue which keeps guard over their serried ranks, 
had rested in unknown, unmarked, and even in distant and 
unregarded graves, where no tribute flowers nor loving words 
would keep them in remembrance, but mediately, if not 
immediately, for her who could not rest till their native skies 
bent above these dead, and loving hands could deck their 
tombs. 

Over her sepulchre, if over any that our history has known, 
may be written, as a single sentence, which is a whole biog- 
raphy of sublime service; written as the rebuke of every fear 
to undertake what needs to be done because of seeming impos- 
sibility; written as the encomium of the highest life, "She 
hath done what she could." 



27 

March 13th, The News and Courier published some beau- 
tiful verses written by Miss E. B. Cheeseborough, who, after 
many years of absence, is home again; perhaps Mrs. Snow- 
den's oldest living friend; and they appear in full in the 
tribute to Mrs. Snowden, delivered at the Memorial Services 
May 10th, at Magnolia Cemetery. 

March 15th, the Gentlemen's Auxiliary Association paid 
their tribute to worth in these words: 

Whereas, It has pleased God to take from our midst and 
recall to His heavenly fold the spirit of our late President, 
Mary Amarinthia Snowden; be it 

Resolved, That we, the Gentlemen's Auxiliary Association 
to the Board of Control of the Home for the Mothers, Widows 
and Daughters of . Confederate Soldiers, humbly bow to the 
will' of the Almighty, and that in her demise we recognize our 
loss of a living example in and perpetual inspiration to that 
actual self abnegation which calls to earth and gives practical 
action to the holy three, Hope, Faith and Charity; that in 
her demise we have lost an ardent, untiring, unflinching leader 
in that work which brings in all of its tangibility relief to 
those in want, alleviation to the suffering, comfort to thuse in 
sorrow, a renewal of hope to the dejected, and upon which 
God has set His seal of approval; and that while we will ever 
strive to imitate her lofty character, we yet feel our inability 
to realize in its fulness her high, pure and unselfish nature. 

Resolved, That we offer our deepest sympathy to the Board 
of Control of the Home for the Mothers, Widows and Daugh- 
ters of Confederate Soldiers, who in her demise have lost a 
leader and co-worker of the highest intellectual and executive 
ability, of the most sagacious judgment, of the wisest counsel, 
and of a most encouraging and inspiring temperament; one 
ever ready by self-denial, personal courage, ami willing 
responsibility to give that moral support so necessary in life's 
battle for the achievement of good works. 



28 

Resolved, That we offer our deepest sympathy to the 
mothers, widows and daughters of Confederate soldiers, who 
in her demise have lost one nearer to them than a patroness, 
a mother who dedicated the noblest impulses of her heart, the 
strongest and most absorbing reflections of her mind, the 
greatest energies of her physical being, and the most valuable 
moments of her time to their bodily comfort as well as their 
mental and spiritual development and welfare, that by their 
more elevated lives they could better illustrate and reflect the 
image of their Maker and the most glorious work of God. 

Resolved, That we offer our deepest sympathy to her 
bereaved children, who in her demise have lost the ever 
present companionship of that tenderest love, most responsive 
sympathy, deepest interest, and most subtle appreciation, 
which is to be found only in a mother's heart. 

Resolved, That a page of our Minute Book be dedicated to 
her memory. 

Resolved, That we erect in a suitable place in the Confed- 
erate Home building a marble mural tablet, not only as a mark 
of our deepest respect, reverence and gratitude for the great 
work the Confederate Home commemorates, but as a memorial 
to one who, in consecrating the measure of her days to the 
actual application of God's command to feed, clothe and 
shelter the needy, and by mental and moral training, to 
enlighten, expand and exalt the soul, has proved herself to 
be the highest type of woman and a friend to all mankind. 

CLARENCE CUNNINGHAM. 
ZIMMERMAN DAVIS. 
S. G. STONEY. 

The next in order of resolutions in honor of the late Mrs. 
Snowden, are those, of peculiar beauty, passed by the Charles- 
ton Chapter, United Daughters of the Confederacy, March 
L9th, 1898 : 

The members of Charleston Chapter, Daughters of the 
Confederacy, are called upon to place on record their sense 



29 

of the loss they sustained in the death, on the 23d of February 
last, of Mrs. Mary Amarintliia Snowden, in the 79th year of 
her age. 

Most of the members of this Chapter derive their claims to 
membership from the reflected deeds of others, but our 
departed friend needed no record of distinguished service of 
father, husband or brother to entitle her name to be written 
high up on our roll. During the struggle for the establish- 
ment of our loved Southern Confederacy she devoted herself 
to deeds of tender help and sympathy to our sick and wounded 
soldiers, nursing them in her own home, sharing with them 
every comfort which she herself enjoyed, or visiting them 
with daily ministrations of food and delicacies in the crowded 
hospitals, carrying to them also words of cheer and hope, and 
helping them to regain strength of body and buoyancy of 
spirit by the sunshine of her loving and sympathetic presence. 
She loved the cause for which our heroes fought; she loved 
the soldiers who fought for the sacred cause so dear to her 
heart. Nor did her love diminish when the cause was lost, 
and many of the soldiers had fought their last battle and slept 
their last sleep. The echoes of the last guns of the war had 
scarcely ceased to reverberate from the Virginian hills, or the 
islands by the sea, ere she began to arrange for the honorable 
interment ami remembrance of the Southern dead. She 
travelled from battlefield to battlefield, all over our Southland, 
gathering up the bones of the dead heroes who were hastily 
buried where they fell, and brought them to our own city of 
the dead, and reverently laid them side by side, where, assisted 
by other loving hands, suitable stones were placed to mark 
their graves. Nor was this all. In 1866 she organized the 
first Memorial Association of the South, and ever since, year 
by year, on the anniversary of the death of Stonewall Jackson, 
the men, women and children of this City by the Sea make 
their pilgrimage to beautiful Magnolia to aid this band of 
noble women in laving tributes upon the graves of those 
soldiers whose hones she gathered from the widely distant 



30 

fields where they fell. In addition to the magnificent monu- 
ment erected mainly through her instrumentality, in the 
centre of this ground consecrated to heroic dead, she has 
erected one for the living, in our city, and the Confederate 
Home of Charleston, in educating the children and the chil- 
dren's children, to remote generations of those who gave their 
lives in defence of our hemes, will be her grandest monument. 

With sorrowful hearts, be it, therefore, 

Resolved, That in the death of Mrs. Snowden this Chapter 
has lost one of its most esteemed and honored members, and 
not only have our city and State been bereaved, but our entire 
Southland as well. 

Resolved, That our teuderest sympathy be extended to her 
children, who now have only the fragrant memory of their 
mother's noble character to comfort them in their grief. 

Resolved, That this Chapter will wear a badge of mourning 
on next Memorial Day in honor to her memory. 

Resolved, That a blank page in the Minutes be inscribed to 
her memory; that a copy of these resolutions be sent her 
children, and they be published in The News and Courier. 

Resolved, That this Chapter will assist the Ladies' Memo- 
rial Association each year in making wreaths for Memorial 
Day, and will attend the services at Magnolia Cemetery and 
aid in the decoration of the soldiers' graves. 

March the 27th, 1898. "The State' - newspaper had this 
editorial notice : 

' ' The recent death of this highly esteemed and public-spirited 
lady has evoked a general expression of sympathy and regret 
from pulpit and press in the city which was the field of her 
wonderful achievements. 

In her early life bright, vivacious and prominent in social 
life, she it was avIio organized and led to success the "'Ladies' 
Calhoun Monument Association." By her able management 
and assiduous work in the decade 1850-60, a very large sum 



31 

had been accumulated (between $40,000 and $50,000) when 
the war began, and delayed the memorial work. It was a 
period of daily anxieties to save the fund, and when Charleston 
was to be abandoned, and there was no place of secure deposit, 
this devoted lady and her sister took the stocks and bonds into 
their own custody, and carried them to Columbia, wh„re they 
were on that dreadful night of 17th of February, 1865, when 
the torch was applied, and our beautiful city burned. One 
of the striking incidents of that conflagration was the presence 
of these two Carolina ladies amid the flames of the burning 
city, with this large sum of trust securities on their persons. 
It is needless to say that the whole fund was saved. When 
war ended, and want was everywhere in the Southland, this 
good lady founded the "Confederate Home and School, 1 ' 
without means, but with a large measure of faith and hope. 
The extensive property on Broad Street, in Charleston, first 
rented, and subsequently bought and paid for, and a consider- 
able endowment fund, represent the achievements of her later 
life/ 1 

The members of Camp Sumter, No. 250, V. C. V. form- 
erly "The Survivors' Association of Charleston District," 
formed in 1866, did not take steps to pass resolutions upon 
Mrs. Snowden's death until they met in annual session. April 
12th, "Fort Sumter Day," thus giving additional force to 
their action by the large and representative meeting of Con- 
federate Veterans. 

The resolutions were offered by Col. James G. Holmes, 
after some introductory remarks, and seconded by Col. James 
Armstrong, in a few feeling and fitting words: 

Mrs. Mary Amarinthia Snowden having proved her right 
to the highest respect and reverence, and to the warmest 
affection of those who fought or suffered for the Confederate 
States by her life-work, is no less entitled in death to have her 
good and great (le^h commemorated and preserved for pos-. 
terity. Gifted and self-forgetting type of the South Carolina 



32 



Confederate woman, spending and being spent for those, and 
"The Cause" she loved better than her life, for four years of 
war, she lived only to minister to Confederate soldiers and 
sailors, on the field and in the hospitals, and for thirty-three 
years of peace she strove to care for the wounded and home- 
less Confederate Veterans, and to protect their mothers, wives 
and sisters, and to educate their daughters, and from far and 
near to gather the dead heroes of the Confederacy, that in 
honored graves they might rest in their own loved Southland, 
and to build monuments, (the noblest of them all, "The 
Home for Mothers, Widows and Daughters of Confederate 
Soldiers and Sailors, 1 ' in this city) to teach the lessons they 
died for. Therefore, be it 

Eesolved, That Camp Sumter, No. 250, IT. C. V., the 
mother of Confederate Survivors' Associations, as Mrs. 
Snowden was the first inspiration of Confederate Memorial 
Associations, having testified by attendance at her funeral to 
her worth, now places upon a page of the Minute Book this 
testimony of our reverence and affection for her memory: 

Mary Amarinthia Snowden, overborne by service for her 
loved Confederate sisters and brothers, the living and the 
dead, laid her down to sleep, February 23rd, 1898. 

' ' Faithful unto death — this her glory. ' ' 

* -X- -X- * -X- -X- 

"We chant no requiem where she's sleeping, 
Nor cry "Alas!" with sorrow's breath; 
We send our triumph song to Heaven, 
And this its music — faithful unto death. ' ' 

l 'The Evening Post," of Charleston, S. C, said' edi- 
torially : 

"Not long ago*we printed a sketch of Mrs. Mary A. Snow- 
den, of Charleston, whose deeds of kindness and mercy during 
the cruel days of strife and bloodshed in her native city, were 
told with loving emphasis, and whose work in the establish- 



33 

merit of the Confederate Home, and in the erection of the 
Confederate Monument in beautiful Magnolia, was also por- 
trayed in loving colors. This sketch has only preceded the 
death of Mrs. Snowden a short time, as her pure spirit has 
ascended to the skies and entered upon a bliss that is immortal. 
Her consecrated and unselfish life will be the guiding star for 
Charleston maidens and matrons in the coming years, and her 
unflinching patriotism is an enduring example to the citizens 
of South Carolina. Her memory will be cherished, and her 
deeds will be fragrant in other generations. ' ' 

The following is the sketch referred to above: 

September 10th, 1897, Mrs. Mary Amarinthia Snowden 
celebrated her 78th birthday. Mrs. Snowden is the daughter 
of Joseph Yates, and the widow of William Snowden, M. D., 
of Charleston, S. C. In her ever .hospitable home in the city 
that first sounded the tocsin of the Confederate War, Mrs. 
Snowden still lives, and though for some months she has been 
confined to her room, and perhaps may never again go about 
doing good and relieving suffering, yet when the Master calls 
she will be cheerfully ready, and her works will live after 
her. It is peculiarly fitting that a pen and ink sketch of Mrs. 
Snowden's life should be framed, in a paper, in her own 
home, that is true to the sacred past, for she is a Confederate 
woman of Confederate women, and no woman living or dead 
has exceeded her in effort or accomplishment for "The ( Jause" 
while it lasted, for the principle as it lives in the persons of 
•Confederate Veterans and their children, for the memories 
that to her are sacred, and of life apart. During the war 
Airs. Snowden, assisted by her equally devoted sister, Mrs. 
Isabella Snowden, gave her entire time to the service of the 
hospitals, and to nursing the sick and wounded wherever 
found, ministering even with Godlike charity to those vandal 
soldiers of the Union Army who were laving waste the homes 
of those she loved, desecrating the graves of her dead, and 
making life a thing to dread Cm' the women of the South. 
3 



34 

Mrs. Snowden's whole life has been lived unselfishly. She 
was the inspiration and prime worker of the Calhoun Monu- 
ment Association, that had accumulated some $75,000 
before the war to build a monument to the greatest, purest 
and most liberal statesman America had produced since 
Washington, and it was Mrs. Snowden who sewed into her 
skirts the securities when Sherman burnt Columbia, and 
preserved the means that enabled the Calhoun Monument 
Association to erect the imposing monument that now adorns 
Marion Square, in front of the South Carolina Military 
Academy, known as the Citadel. The war ended, and Mrs. 
Snowden and her sister, both widows, turned to mend their 
grief by continuing to live for others. A brave Marylander, 
by the name of Charles E. Rodman, who had been paralyzed 
from his waist down, by being entombed under the falling 
rampart of Battery Wagener, was the first object of their 
solicitude, and they took him to their home and ministered 
unto him until he was removed to St. Philip's Church Home 
(Episcopal) where he lived, until of necessity removed to the 
hospital to end his brave life. Then the cry came up from 
the penniless, wounded, and almost disheartened Confederate 
Veterans: "Who will aid us to educate our children ? " and 
who but the Snowden widowed sisters answered : ' ' We will. ' ' 
A large and commodious building, occupying a most advan- 
tageous position on Broad Street, the principal east and west 
street of the city, and running back some hundreds of feet to 
Chalmers Street, was obtained for $1,800 a year, and the 
sisters Snowden mortgaged the home over their heads, and 
the only protection for Mrs. M. A. Snowden's two young 
children, to secure the first year's rental. As I am not writ- 
ing a history of the Confederate Home, 1 will only write of it 
as its institution, groAth, maintenance and good work is part 
of the life, if not the whole life, of Mrs. M. A. Snowden, 
assisted by her untiring, if less aggress ive sister. Mrs. Snow 
den went to warm-hearted, sympathetic Baltimore to learn 
how similar eleemosynary institutions were managed, and to 



35 

obtain aid from those who were well to do, and sympathized 
with the ruined South. Visiting- a home for widows in that 
city, she was offered by one of the dependent inmates $1 — 
the very first voluntary offer to the cause — and declining, 
because of the necessities of the giver, was asked if she rejected 
the widow's mite, replying that she would gratefully accept 
it then as the seed corn, blessed of God, for her enterprise. 
The incident got into the papers, and was read in Europe by 
the helplessly ill daughter (Miss Louise) of the great philan- 
thropist, Hon. W. W. Corcoran, and after the daughter's 
death the father sent Mrs. M. A. Snowden $1,000, and thus 
the Confederate Home of Charleston, S. C, the first of its 
kind, was started to shelter and care for the "mothers, widows 
and daughters of Confederate soldiers, 11 and to educate the 
daughters in the faith their brave fathers had fought for, and 
their womanly mothers had suffered for. It was in 1867 that 
the Home took shape and being, and if educating the daugh- 
ters of noble men and women to become self -helping, self- 
respecting and working women in the world is a good work, 
then Mary Amarinthia Snowden' s name should be illuminated 
l>v history, and live in song and story, and in the hearts of 
grateful people; for some fifteen hundred girls of the State 
have been educated in the Home for the Mothers, Widows 
and Daughters of Confederate Soldiers, and Mrs. M. A. 
Snowden, by her untiring efforts, has caused the establish- 
ment, support, and partial endowment of this Home. 

Mr. W. W. Corcoran, after a visit to the Home, gave it 
an additional amount of $5,000, and a generous Baltimore 
woman has given it, through Mrs. Snowden, $20,000. 
Surely if to care for sick and wounded Confederate soldiers 
for four years, and for those dearer to them than life, their 
mothers, wives and daughters, for thirty years, is entitled to 
"well done, thou good and faithful servant," then does Mrs. 
Mary Amarinthia Snowden stand second to no other Confed- 
erate woman, and Chapters of Daughters of the Confederacy 
should be namedfor her in every State of the late Confederate 



36 

States. For a high-spirited, dauntless woman, full of life and 
human frailties, to live a long, useful and unselfish life for 
others, and those others endeared to her only by their human- 
ity, is Christlike, and Mary Amarinthia Snowden's cross will 
burgeon into the crown promised of Him. Mrs. Snowden 
formed, it is believed, the first Memorial Association in the 
South, 1866, and with singular propriety, it adopted the 
anniversary of Stonewall Jackson's death, May 10th, as its 
memorial day; and since 1866 this day has been observed in 
Charleston by the Ladies' Memorial Association and the citi- 
zens generally, and now that the State has made it a legal 
holiday, only the selfish money-lovers and those who were 
faint-hearted in war, and would forget in peace, fail to observe 
the day. The first general monument to the Confederate 
dead was unveiled in the soldier's plot in beautiful Magnolia 
Cemetery. South Carolina's own Wade Hampton delivered 
the address, and it is not saying too much to affirm that the 
bronze Confederate soldier, clutching his nag to. his breast, as 
he grasps his rifle with the other hand, shows its Munich 
birth, and is the most truth-telling and spirited monument in 
the South, if not in the United States, as it stands guarding 
the graves of some eight hundred Confederate dead, many 
of whose bodies were removed from the graves of Gettysburg's 
battlefield. Mrs. Snowden is the President of the L. M. A., 
and as long as she is strong enough to sit in a carriage will 
attend the solemn, and with us always impressive, ceremony 
of love and admiration, and will see to it, as she has done for 
thirty-one years, that each and every grave has its evergreen 
cross and wreath. As Wade Hampton must ever be our typi- 
cal South Carolina Confederate Soldier, so must Mary Ama- 
rinthia Snowden remain the type of the South Carolina (Jon- 
federate Woman, fearless and faithful. 

James G. Holmes. 



37 

We find in The Neivs and Courier of later date, this evidence 
that Mrs. Snowden was appreciated out of her State, as well 
as in it, as we read : 

'Tn April last, Col. James G. Holmes visited Nashville, 
Tenn., to make arrangements for the comfort of the comrades 
of the South ( /arolina Division, United Confederate Veterans, 
who were to attend the re-union of the United Confederate 
Veterans in June following. Col. Holmes was invited to a 
meeting of the Nashville Chapter, Daughters of the Confed- 
eracy, and was called upon for a speech, of course. Col. 
Holmes gave an account of the formation of Charleston Chap- 
ter, Daughters of the Confederacy, and then he told of the 
noblest work that has been done in this city, and none more 
needed or nobler had been done elsewhere at any time. To 
Mrs. Mary Amarinthia Snowden, and to her sister, the late 
Mrs. Isabella Snowden, he gave fitting praise for the inception 
and carrying on of the noble work that for thirty years has 
furnished a home for many unfortunate ladies of the State, 
many of them bearing historic names, and not a few of whom 
had once possessed handsome fortunes and beautiful homes of 
hospitality. The "Home for the Mothers, Widows and 
Daughters of Confederate Soldiers" has not only done this, 
but has enabled some twelve hundred girls, who represented 
Confederate soldiers, dead and living, to get a good education, 
and learn domestic habits of neatness and economy, fitting 
them to become, as many of them have, heads of families that 
are an. honor to the State. 

Immediately after Col. Holmes's address. Mrs. Mary 
Amarinthia Snowden was unanimously elected an honorary 
member of "Nashville Chapter, Daughters of the Confed- 
eracy," but not until yesterday did Col. Holmes receive the 
certificate that he, as the Chapter's delegated messenger, was 
requested to present to Mrs. Snowden. The certificate is 
the regular official certificate of membership, and hears the 
seal of the Order, and is signed by Mrs. John Overton, Pree- 



38 

ident, and Miss Maekie Hardison, Secretary, of Nashville 
( !hapter, and countersigned by Mrs. Ellen Bernard Lee, 
President, and Mrs. John P. Hickman, Secretary of the 
U. D. C. ; (Mrs. Lee is the wife of General Fitzhugh Lee) 
and also by Mrs. M. C. Goodlett, State President. The 
inability to obtain the signature of Mrs. Lee until recently has 
bsen the cause of the delay in forwarding the certificate to 
Mrs. Snowden. though she was apprisepL of its coming in 
April, from a clipping from the Nashville Banner, that 
reported the incident referred to above Col. Holmes pre- 
sented the certificate to Mrs. Snowden yesterday afternoon at 
her home, to which she has been confined for many months. 

Mrs. Snowden is a typical ' ' Daughter of the Confederacy, ' ' 
and Nashville Chapter has done itself honor in so kindly and 
appreciatively recognizing the fact, and this act must ever 
serve to bind the Nashville and Charleston Chapters in the 
strong bonds of the "United Daughters of the Confederacy," 
especially as Mrs. Snowden is also an honorary member of the 
Chrrleston Chapter " 

Except only the "Confederate Home," it was the care of 
the graves of Confederate soldiers and sailors that was nearest 
Mrs. Snowden's heart; and Memorial Day, May loth, the 
anniversary of Stonewall Jackson's death, always found her 
prepared with fresh flowers and evergreen wreaths and crosses 
to place upon the lowly Southern Mecca-mounds, that 
mother-like, hid from view the dear remains of valiant heroes. 
It was most fitting then, that the first Memorial Day after her 
death was chosen by the Ladies 1 Memorial Association as the 
proper time to give public exhibition of their sense of loss. 
The members of the Association, as also the members of the 
( Charleston Chapter. United Daughters of the Confederacy, 
and the young ladies of the Confederate Home, wore badges 
of mourning on the left breast, and part of the simple service 
of the day was specially in memory of Mrs. Snowden. After 
the opening prayer had been offered by the Rev. Lucius 
Cuthbert, D. D., Col. Zimmerman Davis, commanding 



39 

Charleston Regiment, U. C. V., presiding, spoke as fol 
lows : 

More than eighteen hundred years ago the founder of Chris- 
tianity immortalized the name of Mary, when He said of her 
of Bethany, for the costly and loving service she had rendered 
Him: "Verily, I say unto you, wheresoever this Gospel shall 
be preached in the whole world, that also which this woman 
has done shall he spoken of for a memorial of her." 

We pause a moment in these solemn proceedings to-day to 
recall anotler Mary, that noble woman who, for more than 
thirty years, has loved and honored this hallowed spot; by 
whose loving hands the hones of more than eight hundred 
valiant Southern heroes have been gathered from the red 
fields of battle and given tender burial here, and by whose 
untiring efforts these head stones and that imposing monument 
have been erected to commemorate their services to their 
country. 

As long as this city of the dead shall remain as the recep- 
tacle of mortality, as long as your city of the living shall sit 
enthroned by the sea, so long will the name of Mary Amarin- 
thia Snowden be honored and revered ! 

The ladies of the Memorial Association, of which she was 
the distinguished President during all these years, have 
requested Col. James G. Holmes to offer a tribute to her 
memory to-day. 

THE TRIBUTE. 

Mr. Chairman and Faithful Friends of the Fallen Cause; 
Memorial Day is meaningful for those of us gathered here 
to-day reverently to renew our belief in the equity of a cause 
loved, though lost forever, and to pay tribute, as best we may, 
to the worth of those silent sleepers who gave their lives in 
the vain effort to establish the outward manifestation of a 
principle that is deathless. The softening years in their rhyth- 
mic flow through the three decades and more since this beau- 



40 



tiful custom we celebrate to-day was first inspired by a brave 
woman, now sainted, bad brought, as only time can, surcease 
of violent grief, and the sense of exultation that these glorious 
dead were of our very own, our dead, was akin to the feeling 
that animates when we lift our hats and bow our heads at the 
graves of Washington, and of Davis, of Lee, of the John- 
stons, of Jackson and of Beauregard, or of our own R. II. 
Anderson, Barnard E. Bee, Clement H. Stevens, Maxcy 
Gregg, Jenkins, Gist and other heroes, who fell upon the 
fateful field, but to-day the past seems to be compressed into 
the present, and there would seem to be no future. To-day, 
again, those graves are open graves, the clods seem falling 
upon the echoing coffins, and our grief is all renewed, the 
w r ounds in our hearts are torn open, and time seems no longer 
a healer. ""lis true the sweet May breezes, fraught w 7 ith a 
suggestion of the briny deep just beyond, where "the sand 
beach fastens the fringe of the marsh to the folds of the land, 1 ' 
fan our cheeks, the requiem singers of our heroic dead, the 
mocking birds, sing from these "immemorial oaks;' 1 our 
tyjjifying soldier still guards with lifelike care the flag of his 
and our devotion. Why, then, is our sadness renewed ? 
Why do these graves seem freshly dug, ready to hide from 
us those we reverently love ? The same sentiment that makes 
grief as yet triumph over exultation, when we stand beside 
the graves of our recently dead Confederate heroes, Kennedy, 
McKissick, McGowan, Hagood, Bratton, sways us when we 
look around and ask' each other, and our own hearts, where is 
she ? 

Where is the typical Confederate woman V She who made 
this day an assured annual ceremonial of devotion; she who 
gathered the hallowed dust mingling with Mother Earth in 
ihose sacred mounds from far and near, from States that 
fought and lost, from States that slew and conquered; she 
that put that soldier on guard to remind the sordid and selfish, 
and to teach the ignorant and the young, that principle must 
live e'en though the cause that inspired it perished; she that 



41 



succored 'the mother and widow and orphan of Confederate 
soldiers and sailors, totally forgetful of self, and "In His 
Name, - ''' knowing only one emblazonment for the banner that 
led her on "Faithful unto the end ! " Yes, citizens and 
soldiers; yes, Confederate Veterans and Sons; yes, Daugh- 
ters of the Confederacy, and faithful co-workers of the Ladies' 
Memorial Association; to-day grief must have its sway, for 
Mary Amarinthia Snowden is no longer of us; her banner, 
with its emblazoned, inspiring inscription, "Faithful unto the 
end," has been carried aloft, and with the eyes of faith we 
see, like ( Ymstantine, another Southern ( Yoss in the heavens, 
and the very stars when they come forth to-night will seem to 
re-arrange themselves, and not "In hoc signo vinces" flash 
forth with their lambent rays, but "Faithful unto the end' 1 
will stand out from the deep blue of night's heaven, in cluster- 
ing points of clear star-pointed scintillations, and to the ear 
of faith Mary Amarinthia and Isabella Snowden's voices will 
seem to sing in sweet unison from heaven to earth: 

4 'Sisters of the Memorial Association, Daughters of the Con- 
federacy, Confederate Veterans and Sons, never neglect this 
hallowed spot, never give up this solemn, right-life-teaching 
custom — be ye "Faithful unto the end, 11 until "we are all 
re-united." Mary Amarinthia Snowden, and her less aggres- 
sive, but none the less faithful sister, Isabella, co-workers 
always in war and peace for Confederate soldiers and sailors, 
and those dear to them, sleep just over there, within this same 
God's acre. It would have seemed appropriate that they 
should have laid them down to rest at the foot of their monu- 
ment, guarded by their dead, but as this may not be. why not 
give them the only monument they would approve of- — one 
that, like the sainted dead, will prove unselfish, and. like 
their teaching, ennobles. Let every living woman of the 
eighteen hundred educated at the Confederate Home School 
organize in every County of the State a "Snowden Sisters' 
Monument Association," and go to work to collect funds. 



42 

and by October 1st, 1899, let all moneys made or collected 
be turned into the treasury of the Confederate Home of this 
city, to create the "Snowden Sisters' Scholarship Fund" for 
the Home, and let steps be taken at once to change the name 
of the Home to "The Snowden Sisters 1 Memorial Home for 
the Mothers, Widows and Daughters of Confederate Soldiers 
and Sail* >rs. ' ' Then into the front of the building put another 
tablet, with the words "Snowden Sisters' Memorial, 1 ' so that 
the inscription complete will read: "Snowden Sisters' Memo- 
rial Confederate Home." Only in this way can the memory 
of the devoted sisters be preserved, serving to teach a lesson 
to this and coming generations, and a monument to their 
memory be created that would not give offence to the now 
sainted dead. 



MARY AMARINTHIA SNOWDEN. 

Faithful unto death— this her glory, 

And this the record of her days ; 
No brighter guerdon can we give her, 

Nor words of nobler praise. 

She asked not where the prize was golden, 

She went where duty led ; 
And where the need of help was greatest. 

Thither her footsteps sped. 

Love held her in its chains forever, 
And friendship in a close embrace ; 

To every call of duty and of honor 
She turned a smiling face. 

She clung the closer when misfortune darkened, 
She cared not for the worldlings' scorn ; 

And to the sad and weary-hearted 
She brought a brighter morn. 

We chant no requiem where she's sleeping, 
Nor cry "Alas!" with sorrow's breath; 

We send our triumph song to heaven, 
And this its music — faithful unto death.*' 



43 



COL. WILLIAM ELLIOTT. 

Col. Davis next introduced Col. William Elliott, saying: 
"I have the honor and the pleasure of announcing that the 
Ladies 1 Memorial Association has secured, as orator of the 
day, the gallant soldier, the wise statesman, our Representa- 
tive in Congress, the Hon. William Elliott. He needs no 
introduction to this audience." 

Col. Elliott rose and spoke as follows: 

Mr. Chairman and Ladies of the Memorial Association: 
After the lapse of a third of a century from that fateful season 
when the Confederate Cause went down in defeat, we once 
more meet to pay tribute to our dead. A generation has 
passed away, another has come upon the scene, new men have 
taken the places of those whose faces were once so familiar 
to us, moderate prosperity has long ago succeeded to the fear- 
ful trials and privations that the war left behind it, another 
war is upon us, and yet, as the years follow each other in 
their stately course, and bring to us this blessed day, whatever 
else may be forgotten or neglected, this pious pilgrimage is 
ever remembered. Other people celebrate victories; we pay 
tribute to defeated valor. Others crown their heroes with 
laurels, while enjoying the rich fruits of successful war; we 
deck the graves of our glorious dead in humble thankfulness 
that we were once permitted to stand with them, and with 
willing determination to endure without a murmur, whatever 
their and our cause entailed. In other parts of the M r orld 
governments erect monuments to their soldiers, and organize 
celebrations to perpetuate their achievements; here gentle 
women, stirred by sacred promptings, forever keep alive the 
memory of our fallen heroes. 

All honor to the heroic women of the South! With bleed- 
ing hearts, but with smiling faces, they sent their loved ones 
to the front, and throughout tin' conflict cheered them on by 
their unconquerable spirit. They ministered to the sick. 



44 

nursed the wounded, applauded the brave, and sent the lag- 
gard to the field. They bore every privation with cheerful 
determination. If there was a luxury to be had, it was for 
the soldier, not for themselves. They devoted their lives to 
the cause, and what their deft, nimble fingers found to do, 
can never be realized save by those who lived in that heroic 
age. 

When the war was over, and defeat had overtaken their 
cause, and their hopes were crushed, they did not falter or 
despair, but with brave hearts braced themselves for the stern 
duties of the hour. Although encompassed by the narrow 
and remorseless pressure of actual poverty, no sooner had 
they accustomed themselves to tread the hard and rough road, 
than their unquenchable devotion to the Confederate Cause 
welled up in deeds of tender care for the graves of their 
heroic dead, and merciful provision for their helpless families. 

Chief in this good work was this grand old city, and fore- 
most in this city was the dear lady whose loss we mourn 
to-day. Tireless in devotion, unflagging in zeal, boundless 
in self-sacrifice, she wrought as much honor for Charleston as 
did the brave men whose memory she cherished. 

I can add nothing to the glowing tribute just pronounced. 
I speak to-day by her command — the highest honor ever done 
me. The Confederate Home is a noble monument to her 
memory. But noble as that is, there must be no halting on 
the part of this people in lifting to the skies the shaft that the 
gratitude and love of her sisters have already commenced to 
rear. 



45 

The "Confederate Veteran," of Nashville, Tenn., pub- 
lished in its July, 1898, number, the verses below under this 
caption: 

MRS. MARY AMARINTHIA SNOWDEN. 

(Founder of the ''Home for Mothers, Widows and Daughters of Con- 
federate Soldiers and Sailors.") 

BY HULDA LEIGH. 

"Most potent force, a noble life — 

A gracious star whose life doth go 
Through unknown ages softly, rife 

With beauty that doth arid halo. 
This fearless, patriotic life 

Was spent that others strong might grow. 

For youth's great need, the homeless old. 

Her great, deep heart, did beat always ; 
Ne'er chilled by poverty's white cold, 

True, brave and strong through all the days. 
She culture placed in deathless mold, 

A shaft should nobly speak her praise." 

At the Annual Ee-union of the South Carolina Divi- 
sion, United Confederate Veterans, held in Charleston, April 
27th to 29th, 1898, Col. James G. Holmes "paid a glowing 
tribute to the memory of the women of the Confederacy, 
and especially to Mrs. Mary Amarinthia Snowden, as a 
woman who had done as much, or more, for the Confederate 
Cause than any other. He asked that the Adjutant-General 
of the Division be instructed to have a page in the Minutes 
inscribed to her memory, and that the action of the Major- 
General commanding, in attending officially her funeral, with 
his Staff, be recorded for those who come after:— so ordered." 

"Major- General C. Irvine Walker, the Division Com- 
mander, presiding, referring to the above, recalled an incident 
of Bragg's Kentucky campaign. " He said : ' ' When we got 
into Tennessee, the men were ordered to take off knapsacks, and 
we took what we could in. our blankets, which eventually all 



46 

came to. When we returned from Kentucky, I don't think 
any man in the regiment had a whole suit of clothes, pair of 
shoes, or any other serviceable article of clothing. When 
we reached Knoxville there was an abundant supply of clothes 
and shoes, and everything the South Carolina troops needed, 
sent by Mrs. M. A. Snowden. " 

The editor of this memorial pamphlet has endeavored to 
collect all of the eulogies published in honor of Mrs. Snowden. 
Doubtless many have not come under his notice, uor been seen 
by her children, Miss May Snowden and Mr. Yates Snow- 
den. who have aided him in making the collection. 

It is not in the scope of the resolution, inviting the most 
willing laborer to his congenial task, that he of himself should 
write anything, and hence he has endeavored merely to pro- 
duce a Mosaic that preserves the unities. 

In closing this pleasant, if sadly solemn work, he must, 
however, be allowed to do for the readers, who knew them, 
or of them, what death has done in transporting to Paradise 
and re-uniting Mary Amarinthia and Isabella S. Snowden, sis- 
ters in the flesh, true sisters in faith and good works. Christ's 
beatitude be theirs, and "Ye! our own proud Palmettoes, 
with your heads, like theirs, glory crowned, sentinel their 
graves; and Oh! ye "immemorial oaks," with your swaying 
mosses, woo the sea-salted breezes from Sumter-gnarded ocean, 
with their soulful monotones, to diaphason all nature's 
sweet sounds, to cadence with the angelic notes of the requiem- 
singing mocking birds, when they, at A r espers' holy hour, 
chant above the resting place of the sainted sisters twain, 'till 
the sentinel stars swing in their orbits, and Clod's peace rests 
over all. 



The Ladies' Memorial Association invites the co-operation 
of the Alumni of the Confederate Home School, and of all 
others friendly to the education of female descendants of 
Confederate soldiers and sailors, to contribute to the fund to 
create the " Snowden Sisters' 1 Scholarship," now well 
advanced, and thus, as those life-workers would have wished 
it, memorialize them in death, so that their works may con- 
tinue after them, e'en as they were ''faithful unto death — 
this their glory." 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



013 744 342 9^ 




Confederate Monument. 

Magnolia Cemetery, Charleston, S. C. 

Memorial Day, Mat 10th. 



